The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)

Oblivion isn’t a static world and it’s chock full of places to explore and things to do, there are as mentioned previously a lot of side quests that you can find via interaction with the various people of Tamriel – clicking on them with the A button will initiate a dialogue, unless you’re sneaking, in that case you’ll pickpocket your target and either get away with their inventory or get caught. The GUI helpfully shows if an action is legal or illegal, if the icon turns red then that’s a crime and you’re going to get in trouble.

You’ll either get to serve your time in jail, which could open up a new story possibility, resist arrest, which could see you very dead or pay a fine, which sees you lose your stolen loot.

There are a couple of mini-games in Oblivion, the Speechcraft one where you attempt to raise your target’s disposition with your character, by trying to gauge their emotions from four possible actions to the Lockpicking mini-game where you have to tickle the tumblers and try not to break a pick in doing so. These games get easier the higher your Speehcraft or Lockpicking skills are.

So what you have is a massive game that’s got tonnes of secrets and has a definite solid gameplay mechanic, the tutorial shows you everything you need to know and I could go on and on about the various cool things in the game, but that’s for you to discover and me to leave well alone.

Graphics

Oblivion is a gorgeous looking game and definitely looks great on a 360. The sheer amount of eye candy is enough to make most people begin to drool over their controllers and there have been several cases where friends of mine have brought the console just so they can play Oblivion, their PCs are certainly not up to scratch. It has some excellent lighting and shading as well as various next gen effects, HDR lighting and various levels of anti-aliasing combined with good solid design in the look and feel of the game world.

It’s not hard to loose yourself whilst playing Oblivion and become engrossed in the game, from the architecture and landmass creation, every wall, tree, rock and feature has been replicated in various amounts of detail. It’s pushing landscapes as far as the eye can see and there is some pop-up, noticeable as you traverse the game world, objects and buildings do appear suddenly as the game runs and there are a few frame drops here and there – but it’s hardly a racing game and if you can live with that kind of problem then there’s more than enough graphical power as Oblivion is doing a heck of a lot.

It models weather for one, either snow, rain or a good old thunderstorm as the wind picks up and time passes. It models day and night cycles and the passage of time, the transitions are seamless and there’s a good deal of fun just to be had watching these effects as you’re moving through Cyrodiil’s wilderness. The water in Oblivion at least on the surface, is rather nice and reflects the landscape/buildings effectively – below the surface it’s rather murky and fairly hard to see anything.

So the long and short of it is that Oblivion has gorgeous graphics and is probably one of the best looking 360 games on the market, so far.

Models

The previous game had some pretty dire models to be honest; they were out of proportion and looked just plain odd. Oblivion suffers from a little bit of Bethesda’s art style from Morrowind but not to the detriment of this game, since they have used a model generator capable of making fairly interesting faces for all the various races and on the whole I’m pleased with what they’ve done. Some people have said that they think a lot of the game’s characters are ugly; this pleases me since I’m sick of pretty-pretty fantasy worlds and heroes, it’s about time we saw some dodgy looking faces and people.

The level of detail and textures on the models is nice, they have a wide variety of clothing and armours, the features from the faces are all well done and there could have been a slight more variety in eye colours for the races at character generation for your player, that’s my only quibble really.

The various items in the game world, from armour to weapons are all likewise given a good level of design and texturing, there are some really nice weapons on offer and the elven swords are particularly good looking.

Animations

Oblivion has a lot of animations, from the lowliest mudcrab to the biggest…well let’s not spoil things. Each animation is fairly well tuned and the combat animations are some of the best ones seen in a game of this type, they stand nose to nose with such titles as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for example. The world is alive, the grass sways, and the signs move under their own physics when the wind is heavy enough and the people smile, frown, change emotion and have a wide variety of motions/expressions.

Their eyes move and they blink, when talking to each other they will go through a range of postures and various small animations you might miss if you’re not looking. Oblivion is one of those games that you need to regard the smaller details in, or you’ll probably just breeze right on past it. I have sat and watched them interact for a while, they sometimes go over the same thing but it breathes life into the world.

There are some animals in the game (not enough, Beth really needs to bring out a wildlife and animals mod) like deer and these roam around acting like deer should, there are horses you can buy that help considerably as you travel around the world, these are really well animated and although I have seen various forums where people complain about the horse motions, I can’t see it myself.

Even the sky is animated, several layers of cloud can be seen moving through the heavens and in a thunder storm the lighting lights up the sky in a dramatic fashion, this also adds to the heavy sense of immersion and allows the player to feel as though they are a part of a living, breathing world.